Editors' Review

Microsoft Remote Deskop is an effective free tool for managing remote-desktop connections from a Mac. Perfect for those who travel frequently, or those who have a Mac/PC environment at work that they need to interface with, this free app provides most of the basic tools necessary.

Pros

Fast and intuitive: Microsoft Remote Desktop's basic tools allow you to access your remote Windows desktop and open common programs, sort through files, and manipulate your machine from a Mac over an Internet connection. This is an invaluable tool.

Clean user interface: The interface is decidedly Mac-friendly, offering a range of tools that can quick-start popular Windows programs or folders that you use frequently on your PC. Whether you're booting up Remote Desktop quickly to access your machine or you're using it for long work sessions, the layout of the tools is effective.

Cons

Limited display options: The display options can be limited at times, with dock and menu hide options not available in certain configurations. Multiscreen support sometimes causes issues when you switch back to single-screen use, which can be frustrating when you're managing multiple apps or switching between interfaces.

Bottom Line

Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac is a useful free tool that allows you to access your Windows programs and files from a remote Mac. That alone is reason enough to download it, if you work on both systems and need to move files between them often. Remote Desktop is not as robust as other paid tools, but for infrequent transfers or very basic needs, it gets the job done.

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Publisher's Description

With the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, you can connect to a remote PC and your work resources from almost anywhere. Experience the power of Windows with RemoteFX in a Remote Desktop client designed to help you get your work done wherever you are.

After the first patch, it just kept on freezing after a while. The timing seems to be random but it always happens after I switch to other windows. It's really annoying!

And the "Use all monitors" option is confusing when I use multiple screens. I don't want it but it's on by default.

Switching back to full screen doesn't fit the whole screen. I get the annoying scroll bar on the right side of the RDP window.

Summary

I hope they downgrade it back to the previous version. It's infuriating when I lose connection or it freezes. The features are kinda simple but still, it feels like this wasn't tested thoroughly at all.

Pretty simple, does what it suppose to, feels like you'e really working on that pc machine remotely. Make sure to launch in full screen mode, had some issues working in other size window sessions.

Cons

Hangs up - sometimes from the very start of the remote session and you have to disconnect and reconnect again. For me only works on my Mac Air in 32 bit mode - can't work it on 64 bit mode. Have had it crash when disconnecting from the machine prompting the mac to do a 'report crash' window thing.

Summary

Overall, works great when it does work, wish it worked in 64 bit mode so I don't have to restart to 32 bit when ever I want to use it to get to my work laptop remotely.

Works very wellKeyboard MappingAllows full-screen without dockFlexible Sound options

Cons

DIsconnects frequently

Summary

I like if very much, except for the frequent disconnects. I also use an XP laptop using the windows version of the remote desktop software to the same remote computer, and never get these disconnects. No indication from the remote computer that it's doing the disconnect either. I'm currently using version 2.0.1.

This version immediately crashes when I connect to a Windows 2000 server.

Summary

I can't use this version at all. The 2.01 version works fine for everything I do, I restored it from Time Machine a few minutes after trying to get 2.1 to work. It consistently crashes immediately up on attempting to connect. I'll stick to what works.

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